Green Zebra Grocery on Thursday announced plans to open its second store, in Portland's Lloyd District. The location lands squarely in the heart of several redevelopment projects, some proposed and some underway.

Green Zebra stores are similar in size to a gas-station convenience store, but with offerings more like a full-size grocer, including fresh produce and a meat counter.

According to a statement from Green Zebra, the new store will be 8,203 square feet - nearly 3,000 square feet larger than its Kenton location - and will open in early 2016.

The newly announced Green Zebra Grocery will sit at Northeast Ninth and Multnomah, on the ground floor of one of the shorter buildings in the Hassalo on Eighth project.Courtesy Green Zebra Grocery

In a phone interview with The Oregonian, chief executive Lisa Sedlar said she is "stoked" to open a store in the Lloyd District, and expects half of the customers to travel to the store by walking, biking or taking public transportation. (For those who drive, parking will be available under the store.)

Sedlar admitted that while she wasn't sure about opening a store in the Lloyd District initially, she warmed to the idea after learning more about the incoming residents and the bike- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.

Sedlar founded Green Zebra with a mission to offer convenient, healthy and fresh foods to urban areas often populated with fast-food restaurants.

And though a Safeway sits a few blocks to the north, Sedlar said she thinks her store will fill a void.

"It's sort of a healthy food desert," she said of the neighborhood. "I'm not saying Safeway doesn't have healthy food - the area's just underserved in terms of healthy, local, organic food. Especially for lunch options.

More expansion plans

The announcement comes just after the fledgling company raised $2.5 million to help fuel expansion. Sedlar said Green Zebra plans to use the money to open two additional stores in Portland in the next two years.

"Because once you raise $2.5 million you have to spend to it," she said. "Well, I should say we get to spend it."

One of those two stores will be the long-awaited store in Southeast Portland, which had been delayed while Green Zebra sought additional financing. Sedlar said the store at Southeast 50th and Division is still on track to open, and promised to have a specific date by the end of the year.

"There are some moving pieces on that project and we hope to have a more substantive update very soon," she said. "We've heard from our neighbors in SE Portland that they are eager for us to be there, and we're very grateful for their support and patience."

The mini-grocer has run into a number of roadblocks: If or when the store at 50th and Division opens, it will mark Green Zebra's third attempt at opening a store in Southeast Portland in three years, after two proposed locations on Woodstock fell through.

But Sedlar said her company's outlook is remarkably rosy: Sales at the Kenton store are up 25 percent year-over-year, and she's looking to expand Green Zebra to other parts of Portland (maybe Montavilla and outer Southeast Portland, she said), and eventually to Seattle and somewhere in California.

The new Green Zebra Grocery in the Lloyd District will employ 40 to 50 people. The grocer will announce open positions and a job fair date in the coming months.